In an article published on The Times of Malta on Tuesday 15th February 2011, Fiona Galea Debono interviews the MRCC President Andrew Warrington, who describes all that the Maltese islands have to offer to tourists wishing to explore the numerous climbing routes on the islands. This article is a follow-up to the one published in 2006 in the Air Malta Inflight Magazine, KM, and details the developments that have taken place since then.
In the last few years, there has been a dramatic increase in climbing oriented tourists visiting the Maltese islands in order to practise this sport. A contributing factor to this increase is the Malta Rock Climbing guidebook published in 2007, which is available for sale both locally and overseas and provides detailed descriptions of how to reach and tackle the 1200 climbs recorded in the guidebook.
The article describes the ongoing work involved in making Malta one of the best climbing destinations in Europe, which includes equipping routes with anchor points for safety, maintenance, and clean-ups. So far, some 400 routes have been equipped from a target of 700, which is a remarkable figure given Malta’s small size and the small group of volunteers. This is being achieved thanks to the funding and ongoing support from the MTA. Andrew Warrington also mentions potential plans intended to attract a larger number of climbers to the islands, which include an international climbing festival, as well as the improvement of parking facilities.
